BOSTON -
As director of product marketing-retail solutions, for Harland Financial Solutions, Braccia understands how to crunch the numbers and redirect the information into actionable steps that members will respond well to and even appreciate.
But making a CRM or MRM system sing the tune that pays off is a longer-term proposition than most may think, he said. Once put to good use, however, it promotes real loyalty of the sort that stems member attrition, he added.
That member attrition rate, now running at 30% in the first year of membership, is a serious woe as it costs 25% more to acquire a new member than keep a current one, Braccia said. Walletshare suffers, too, because 45% of households are single-service users. "The fight for dollars is only getting tougher," he said.
Disappointment in CRM solutions is nearly as old as CRM itself. Braccia noted that CRM was introduced in the early 1980s and deemed a "panacea" for middling personal service and as a means to more effectively target prospects. It landed in the financial services industry in the 1990s, but then lost appeal when "it took too long to develop after being adopted by big players," Braccia said.
"A (Member Customer Information File) is a bucket filled with information and the decile report is the basic report we get from it," he said. Ideally, using all the available CU data on members, a segment profile is built, modeling and scoring is added to the mix and the resulting data is usable for marketing purposes. The challenge lies in "integrating the technology," including ATM usage and e-mail communications. Eventually, he said, MRM will allow for monitoring of what he termed "event detection," i.e. a member's account balance slowly dwindling away or direct deposit suddenly stopping (usually indicative of a move to another financial institution).
"Sound like Big Brother? I get that all the time," Braccia laughed, "but this is where the industry is going."
He knocked marketers who think they can "declare a sales culture, have a pizza party with balloons" and congratulate themselves, declaring their work done. "Sales is a skill and it takes time and coaching. Skills drive production and as people become more proficient, sales go up."
Braccia advised that the true path to MRM must start with a strategy. "Then, you document it, you focus on the tactics, not the technology," to achieve real success. "Focus on interactions, not transactions. Employee compensation reflects your philosophy, but just starting an incentive program without sales training is counter-productive. Don't do it first; do it last. And track everything, especially member retention."
The whole process can take three-to-five years, he said.
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